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Offender Database Christopher Taunoa

Christopher Hapimana Ben Mark Taunoa

Alias

.

Offences

Murdered a Sanson (North Island) publican in February 1996
Also has 19 previous convictions many of them violent

Victims

Hugh Lynch

Offender Affiliations

.

Gang affiliations

none known

Age

Born 1970

Current Location

Prison

Parole/Release Dates

Sentenced in May 1997 to life imprisonment.
Parole declined November 2008
Due for next hearing November 2009

Background
NZ Herald story here with more detail here
Supreme Court judgment here (PDF)
From NZ Herald story May 3rd 1997
Christopher Hapimana Ben Mark Taunoa, a student of Marton, has been found guilty of the murder of Hugh Lynch, licensee of the Junction hotel in Sanson, on February 19 last year. Justice Gallen in the High Court at Palmerston North sentenced him to life imprisonment.

A jury heard that Taunoa confessed several times to the murder of Mr Lynch. But Taunoa said this was in order to ensure the arrest of Anthony Lunch. Taunoa said Anthony Lynch offered him about $350,000 to kill his father. Anthony Lynch denied in court he was at the Junction Hotel on the nigh of the death.

Further background from the masterton.co.nz site
Anne Lynch feels a mix of disbelief and anger that killer Christopher Taunoa, who left her husband Hugh lying dead with his throat slit, has scored $55,000 compensation for his treatment in jail. The Sanson woman says she is still paying the cost of a murder that wrecked her life. She estimates what Taunoa did to husband in their Sanson pub eight years ago has cost her and her family around $100,000 over eight years. They have never received compensation, only some ACC money.

"I honestly can't see the justice in a prisoner having the right to sue," Lynch told the Sunday Star-Times, in the only interview she has given. "Why should he be compensated after what he's done? There was no compensation for us. "He's in a place where they don't have rights, that's what I believe a prison is. If he was ill-treated . . . as long as the problems have been corrected, that should be the end of it." She has consulted a solicitor about the possibility of suing Taunoa in return, more for her children's sake than her own, but worries about going up against a convicted murderer.

She does not want the money for herself, but wonders if it could be put towards the court costs. Lynch believes the payout is symptomatic of a "twisted" justice system skewed in favour of the criminal. She is angry the decision has set a precedent, and worries it could open the floodgates for other prisoners to sue. On Taunoa's claims about suffering psychological torture in Paremoremo Prison she said: "What about the torture we're still living?" Taunoa was 26 in 1996 when he entered the Junction Tavern, in Sanson, and slit 56-year-old Irishman Hugh Lynch's throat from ear to ear.

Anne Lynch said having her son implicated was traumatic. "It cost me $5000 to hire a solicitor to defend him and he had no part in it. He didn't do anything." Other costs included flying her husband's body back to his family in southern Ireland, the first time she had met them. "It was sad to have to go back (to Ireland) in those circumstances." Lynch, a Chinese New Zealander, married Hugh in 1978. They had three children, all now adults. She has not remarried, but has a partner and runs a business away from Sanson. The murder was still a painful memory, and it had been a "long, hard road" getting her life back together. "I've had to bring up three children without a father. They've had a lot to deal with."

She believed Taunoa was evil: "I think he's got to be evil to do what he's done." And she revealed she fears for her family's safety when he becomes eligible for parole in two years. "I don't think he can be corrected, after what he's done. It's a fear I have for my children - I feel he could be a threat and I have to make my children aware of what could happen if he's let loose. That's another thing we'll have to face, I don't want to think about it at this stage." Anne Lynch said if Taunoa had been treated badly under the prison's behaviour management regime (BMR) that system should be corrected, but there should be no monetary benefit.

"He's not on a summer camp is he? He's had a roof over his head and three square meals a day for eight years. He's still got his life - my husband hasn't got his. And he's left us to deal with this for the rest of our lives. "It's immaterial to me what he did to get put in solitary. It's through actions of his own, and he's in a place of punishment." No decision has been made on what legal action she might take. Anne Lynch is sure of one thing: she wants the government to change the law to prevent prisoners benefiting in future.

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Corrections and Additional Information
We endeavour to make this database as accurate as possible, but we are at the mercy of whatever information we can find in various online and offline archives. We rely on the public - that is, people like you - to fill in the gaps that we cannot. If you wish to submit additional information or a correction to this file CLICK HERE . Privacy: Trust policy is that all sources are treated as strictly confidential unless we are explicitly told otherwise. If you wish to see a file removed from this database certain conditions must be met by the offender set out HERE Note that this does NOT apply for those that are the primary offender in a murder, rape, or any sexual offending involving minors. We do not enter into correspondence regarding the guilt/innocence of offenders. Such correspondence is not responded to, especially if the offender concerned has a number of prior convictions

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